Month: May 2018

I’ve come lately to be a fan of the Game of Thrones, having first read the historical novels by Maurice Druon upon which GOT author George R.R. Martin used as a basis for his Medieval fantasy novels which are now a long running TV series. The original books by Druon are based upon real life…

Southern food meets Mexican food in Eddie Hernandez’s new book Turnips & Tortillas: A Mexican Chef Spices Up the Southern Kitchen. Hernandez, the James Beard nominated chef/co-owner of Taqueria del Sol, has written a fantastic cookbook that explores the commonalities of these two cuisines. Never hesitating to improve upon tradition, Hernandez tweaks classic dishes to make…

“I would love to walk into a room seeing everyone with big curly hair or different hairstyles, funky glasses and mixed prints,” Carla Hall tells me when I ask what it would be like if people attending her cooking demonstration at the KitchenAid Fairway Club during this year’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Harbor…

“I’ve always been a people person,” Justin Chapple tells me almost immediately after he calls for the scheduled interview. Within minutes, I totally believe him. It’s like we’ve been best friends forever. “I love to hear from people,” he says, adding that he almost always answers people who contact him via his many social media…

Every two years I look forward to the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, not because I love golf that much, but because there’s always an exciting line-up of celebrity chefs as well as some great Southwest Michigan chefs showing how to create some of their favorite recipes. So I…

Bill Kim’s first cooking experience was making instant ramen over seogtan (burning coals) at age six a year before his family moved from Seoul, Korea to Chicago. Fast forward four decades and Kim, who owns several restaurants in Chicago including urbanbelly, a communal-seating restaurant featuring creative noodle, dumpling and rice dishes, Belly Shack featuring menu…

It was day 66 in Dave McIntyre’s barebones existence on a remote beach hemmed in by cliffs at the northern tip of Vancouver Island when a boat arrived to notify him he had outlasted nine other competitors and was the winner of History Channel’s hit reality show “Alone.” By then, McIntyre had woven a gill…

Pages

Follow Us

Shelf Life: Shelf Life

I’ve only been to a few hockey games — always under duress — but that didn’t keep me from reading “The Breakaway: The Inside Story of the Wirtz Family Business and the Chicago Blackhawks,” well into the night. Typically I don’t expect sports books to be page-turners, but Bryan Smith, a two-time winner and six-time […]

Mary Wisniewski was a college student when she first discovered the writings of Chicago writer Nelson Algren. “Many of his books were set in Wicker Park where my family was from which intrigued me,” says Wisniewski, noting that though Algren’s novels are about shady characters, drug addicts, grifters, drifters and those on the margins of […]

Indiana University Press is running a Goodreads giveaway for my new book Lincoln Road Trip (due out this spring) from now until December 19th. If anyone is interested, here is the link:https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/286632-lincoln-road-trip America’s favorite president sure got around. From his time as a child in Kentucky, as a lawyer in Illinois, and all the way […]

It’s a dark world at times and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Berg feels compelled to make it just a little nicer through her novels. In her latest, Night of Miracles (Random House 2018; $26) she takes us back toMason, Missouri, an imaginary town where kindness reigns and there are happy endings. […]

My friend Kimiyo Naka asked if I’d like to interview Bill Kim, a Chicago chef/ restaurateur and James Beard Award nominee who had a new cookbook out on grilling Korean-style who would be doing a demonstration at the Japan Pavilion at this year’s National Restaurant Association. I’ve wanted to […]

Travel/Food Photos

Blog Stats

TRAVEL/FOOD: TRAVEL/FOOD

One last turn took us to a dead end and the beginnings of the Hollywood Hills. And here we made another find, Sunset Ranch Hollywood the last dude ranch in the greater L.A. area. It’s about as Old Hollywood as you can get.

Indiana University Press is running a Goodreads giveaway for my new book Lincoln Road Trip (due out this spring) from now until December 19th. If anyone is interested, here is the link:https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/286632-lincoln-road-trip America’s favorite president sure got around. From his time as a child in Kentucky, as a lawyer in Illinois, and all the way […]

I’ve spent a lot of time lately traversing Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio following, so to speak, in Abraham Lincoln’s footsteps . And while it’s not recorded that Lincoln stayed at the Golden Lamb in Lebanon, Ohio, it’s certainly possible ashe traveled throughout the area. The connection seems apt because the GoldenLamb has been […]

The largest marketplace of all things doing with Italian edibles in the U.S., the 63,000-square-foot Eataly in Chicago is a mecca for food lovers, a vast space crowded with a variety of venues including unique specialty restaurants, stalls selling meat, cheese, breads, sweets and fish (though really stall is too plebian a term—these are sparkling […]

I was in New Orleans this fall and stayed at the B&W Courtyards, a charming bed and breakfast on Chartres Street that is a collection of 1854 cottages joined together by cobblestone walkways and courtyards with pretty fountains and within walking distance of the French Quarter. The walking distance was lucky as New Orleans is […]